- Dec 16, 2020
- 13,482
- 6,863
The title is a bit clickbaity but it's actually true. Spoiler alert: You won't read anything groundbreaking here, but it's my twist on a couple of tools (sites) that not a lot of people use (for whatever reason). I'm sure it will be really useful to many of you.
Please, read the entire post as I'll answer some of your questions (that you might have) and give you some additional tips.
Now .... let's start ...
The Results:
I know you probably wonder what type of results you can expect. Now, this is a bit subjective because it depends on the niche and a tone of factors, but from personal experience, I found that the conversion rate (ie how often a reply to a query results in a backlink) is about 1 in 7 or 1 in 8.
To be honest, not all journalists let you know that they published your piece. Keep an eye on GSC for those links.
I've gained links from express.co.uk, msn.com, yahoo.com, kansas.com, etc.
Again, those are completely FREE. I paid $0. And It takes like 5 min to reply to a query. You can speed it up if you decide to get a VA.
You know about HARO, but you might not have heard about it yet - Qwoted is basically an alternative to HARO, but the free account allows you to "unlock" only 5 queries per month (still free though).
1. Get an email - could be Gmail or any free email provider, and sign up for both sites. (Note: See FAQ Section - Q1)
2. Fill out your profiles on both sites - If you're not an authority in your niche, you'd have to create a fake persona, and make it as believable as possible). Make sure it matches the details for your site's author (if you have more than 1, pick just 1 of them to target)
3. For HARO - you'd start receiving the emails Morning, Afternoon & Evening emails with queries from journalists from different outlets, skim through them queries once a day.
4. For Qwote - You will be getting emails based on your settings - make sure to enable at least "Real time alerts (for new requests) based on your interests"
General advice on which queries to respond to - Stick to your niche. The point is to build authority in that niche and you don't want to get all sorts of random links from random niches.
If your site is about cats, don't respond to business queries or home renovations. You can, but chances are - you might waste your time. Go for the pets/cats niche.
5. Create an email template - the goal is simple, you don't have to write it up every time you respond to a query. (Note: See FAQ Q2 for more tips on this)
6. Write up the response to the journalist's query
Alright, that's really the core of this process - You have a few options:
Q1: Any tips on the email that I use?
A1: Yes. Preferably use a domain email, not Gmail. It's more professional. Additionally, create an email that shows some personality - ie [email protected] and not [email protected]
Keep in mind that you'd be getting quite a lot of emails, so you might want to create an email that's really designated to HARO & Qwote.
Q2: How do you speed up the process of sending a reply to a query?
A2: You want to use templates. Since I'm a Mac user, I use the mail app - here's a tutorial on how to do that. If you use Gmail - you can find how to do that as well. For other mail providers - just google it. Trust me, it's worth it.
Q3: Can I use HARO's web form instead of an email?
A3: Yes, however, I would strongly advise you against that. The web form does not support HTML, so any link you sent would be just text.
Q4: Are the links do follow?
A4: That depends on the outlet. From what I've noticed, most seem to be nofollow these days. But it still helps a lot with E-E-A-T.
Q5: Will I have the same results as you?
A5: No one can promise you that. I'm sharing how to do it, what you write up and send out would determine the success rate.
Tip 1: Create an excel file to keep track of who you've responded to, when, and whether or not they used your content. In some cases, you can just visit the site and check out the article (you already know what the subject is, should be easy to find).
Tip 2: Do NOT reply to Anonymous queries - honestly, I don't trust those at all. Your link might end up on a shitty site, so my advice is to avoid them.
Tip 3: Be consistent. It will take some time, but it's free and it's worth it.
Please, read the entire post as I'll answer some of your questions (that you might have) and give you some additional tips.
Now .... let's start ...
The Results:
I know you probably wonder what type of results you can expect. Now, this is a bit subjective because it depends on the niche and a tone of factors, but from personal experience, I found that the conversion rate (ie how often a reply to a query results in a backlink) is about 1 in 7 or 1 in 8.
To be honest, not all journalists let you know that they published your piece. Keep an eye on GSC for those links.
I've gained links from express.co.uk, msn.com, yahoo.com, kansas.com, etc.
Again, those are completely FREE. I paid $0. And It takes like 5 min to reply to a query. You can speed it up if you decide to get a VA.
What does it involve?
HARO and Qwoted. I'm sure a good portion of you rolled your eyesYou know about HARO, but you might not have heard about it yet - Qwoted is basically an alternative to HARO, but the free account allows you to "unlock" only 5 queries per month (still free though).
The "How To" Part
1. Get an email - could be Gmail or any free email provider, and sign up for both sites. (Note: See FAQ Section - Q1)
2. Fill out your profiles on both sites - If you're not an authority in your niche, you'd have to create a fake persona, and make it as believable as possible). Make sure it matches the details for your site's author (if you have more than 1, pick just 1 of them to target)
3. For HARO - you'd start receiving the emails Morning, Afternoon & Evening emails with queries from journalists from different outlets, skim through them queries once a day.
4. For Qwote - You will be getting emails based on your settings - make sure to enable at least "Real time alerts (for new requests) based on your interests"
General advice on which queries to respond to - Stick to your niche. The point is to build authority in that niche and you don't want to get all sorts of random links from random niches.
If your site is about cats, don't respond to business queries or home renovations. You can, but chances are - you might waste your time. Go for the pets/cats niche.
5. Create an email template - the goal is simple, you don't have to write it up every time you respond to a query. (Note: See FAQ Q2 for more tips on this)
6. Write up the response to the journalist's query
Alright, that's really the core of this process - You have a few options:
6.1. Research and write it up yourself - Downside: time-consuming, really time-consuming, but it will be accurate since you've looked it up yourself.
6.2. Outsource it - downside - you'd have to invest in a VA to do that.
6.3. Use everybody's new bestie - OpenAI - downside - well, you know, sometimes the facts are inaccurate, however, it speeds up the process tremendously and it's FREE. That's the whole point of this guide after all. And yes, I've used that option.
A few tips on writing the content for each email and query:a) In the intro of the email - keep it short - mention who you are (or who the fake persona is) and why they should trust you or read what you say. The more convincing you sound the better. (Ie "I'm a graphic designer with over 20 years of experience"). Try not to lie too much (although, we all know you will)
b) Include High Authority References/links - (still in the Intro section) If you're just starting out, you don't have any authority links, that's fine, skip this for now, but once you gain a few of those, make sure to mention them (link to each article) - this boosts your credibility. I keep it to about 3-4 links and generally only big outlets that they know of and don't need to Google it.
c) Format and highlight the content they should use for their article - don't attach files (unless they requested it), and make sure to highlight each point of your reply that they can use in their post. Essentially, the goal is to allow them to skim through your email, and make it easy for them to see your main points.
d) Make yourself available - ALWAYS mention that if they have more questions, you'd be happy to answer them (well, OpenAI will but they don't know that)
e) Use Grammarly - please, do yourself a favor and use Grammarly to fix all of your typos.
f) Make it personal - use the journalist's name instead of "Hello Sir/Madam/Dear/etc"
g) Make sure to follow the requirements - quite often they add requirements and if you don't follow it, your response would be ignored
FAQ Section:
Q1: Any tips on the email that I use?
A1: Yes. Preferably use a domain email, not Gmail. It's more professional. Additionally, create an email that shows some personality - ie [email protected] and not [email protected]
Keep in mind that you'd be getting quite a lot of emails, so you might want to create an email that's really designated to HARO & Qwote.
Q2: How do you speed up the process of sending a reply to a query?
A2: You want to use templates. Since I'm a Mac user, I use the mail app - here's a tutorial on how to do that. If you use Gmail - you can find how to do that as well. For other mail providers - just google it. Trust me, it's worth it.
Q3: Can I use HARO's web form instead of an email?
A3: Yes, however, I would strongly advise you against that. The web form does not support HTML, so any link you sent would be just text.
Q4: Are the links do follow?
A4: That depends on the outlet. From what I've noticed, most seem to be nofollow these days. But it still helps a lot with E-E-A-T.
Q5: Will I have the same results as you?
A5: No one can promise you that. I'm sharing how to do it, what you write up and send out would determine the success rate.
Tip 1: Create an excel file to keep track of who you've responded to, when, and whether or not they used your content. In some cases, you can just visit the site and check out the article (you already know what the subject is, should be easy to find).
Tip 2: Do NOT reply to Anonymous queries - honestly, I don't trust those at all. Your link might end up on a shitty site, so my advice is to avoid them.
Tip 3: Be consistent. It will take some time, but it's free and it's worth it.
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